Could anyone please convey this message to the Age of Sig Zharr group?Admiral 12-19-2018

Preamble: Howdy folks! A few months ago, through travails of tech-errors galore, I managed to set up a Facebook account, codename Dawi Zharr, to follow along with Chaos Dwarf goings-on on Facebook, and also to keep them in the loop as to contests and gems on CDO. I did this, and also took the time to scan through the work that people had shared, and compliment them for it. Some marvellous stuff!

Recently, however, I found myself completely unable to find the FB group Age of Sig Zharr. After consulting with Tjub, it would seem I got blocked for some unfathomable reason, and the only little clue as to why would be some private correspondence with another admin a few years ago, where said staff member got blocked for sharing CDO announcements on the Facebook group. I have no idea if this clue is in any way valid, but I would appreciate if someone who is a member of Age of Sig Zharr could convey this to them:

The Message Wrote:

Hi,

First, could you please unblock my account ("Dawi Zharr" on Facebook) and let me in again?

Further (if certain conclusions based on careful analysis of old clues hold true), there are no reason to block anyone who help keep members of your Facebook group in the loop as to goings on, on the forum Chaos Dwarfs Online. People use both FB and forum sites for the sharing of hobby efforts, and there is no reason as to why they couldn't work together and live side by side without obstacles.

I've sometime caught mentions of CDO being anti-AoS. As to the staff, this is untrue. No one in the current staff play AoS, but we're neither averse to it, nor have we ever tried to hinder anything related to Age of Sigmar. Four things are worth keeping in mind:

1. That we until recently have known nothing about Dawi Zharr in official Age of Sigmar background. Given the flux and possibilities of the brave new setting, this was of interest, since we could well have seen a brand new reimagining of evil dwarfs in AoS, as happened to the vanilla Dwarfs.

2. That we now have something to work with after the revelation of Zharr Vyxa and the Flaming Taurus, and have as such gladly jumped at this new opportunity to launch new contests themed explicitly around the new role of high sea Chaos Dwarfs in AoS, the first two of which are to be seen here: http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/showth...?tid=17669 & http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/showth...?tid=17723 Expect to see a lot more mined from official material about Dawi Zharr in AoS (and likewise from new evil Dwarf concept development in e.g. KoW & T9A, given the split playerbase - but split doesn't need to mean antagonized). The more official AoS material we have to work with, the more we can make out of it.

3. We decided against inflating the forums on CDO with new sections for AoS, KoW, T9A and so on, unlike other forums. Not because we had anything against any of these wargames, but because we judged member activity to be too low to warrant an expansion. Given that other forums largely have seen their new segregated sections act as ghost towns, this decision would not seem to have been in error. Instead, we've recently consolidated the forum, combining several forum sections and shrinking it to better reflect activity and have less ghost town section. For nr. 4, see below.

As to the members, it may be as it is, but all such human turbulence fades away given time, and it's currently a much friendlier atmosphere than following the period shortly after End Times, when human nature - being what it is - saw the venting of a lot of bitterness among several members. I personally didn't pay any attention to all the storminess around the ending of WHFB (people will have their little ways, and soon enough they'll calm down), and I do not in any case police the site, only help run contests and similar events. Which leads us to number four:

4. CDO has never had a police of suppression of negative criticism. If you look through CDO threads through the years, you'll find plenty of sneering comments, e.g. against FW bull centaurs perceived as grotesque and not CD at all, or similar comments of disapproval for various companies' models, or for WHFB rules, or background writing. We have never suppressed any of it, even if some were acidic enough. As such, there is no reason to expect CDO staff to suppress vehemently anti-AoS comments, but please note that this nevertheless actually happened to some degree thanks to the hard efforts of Bloodbeard, whose work in running the site and keeping things more civil at the time needs to be appreciated.

I was myself not active during the summer when WHFB ended and got replaced by a brave new setting, but I've heard something about the turbulence back then. There was raised the question of banning a couple of members that seemed to contribute nothing but bile (against AoS) at the time, yet which other staff members cautioned against based on experience (e.g. was it the result of personal difficulties, "we've seen similar before", namely considerations for the well-being of members behind the screen). Please note that Staff action, when it was undertaken, was always against the most acidic of comments directed against AoS, and never to suppress AoS players.

The new hobby scene after the End Times have seen the once rather monolithic Warhammer community split into several branches, with many playing Age of Sigmar, some Kings of War, others sticking to older versions of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, some playing the Ninth Age, and still others trying out other wargames still for their evil dwarfs to roam across. The forum as of today try to reflect this, being a home for everybody who are into evil Dwarfs regardless of setting. Warhammer Fantasy have a privileged position here (and by extension its direct descendant AoS) for being the common origin point for all of us, but we're not excluding any one niche, and we will likewise announce and promote fun new goings-on for Chaos Dwarfs in any wargame, so long as it gets reported to us by the players of said wargame.

Currently, CDO sports several nice Age of Sigmar logs, and AoS Dawi Zharr background stories well worth checking out! Not least Uther the Unhinged's. The rage against Age of Sigmar among certain segments of the membership has fizzled down to a murmur, and is best just ignored (when not edited out or deleted by Staff) since human nature can never be expected to be perfect. It's in short a friendly little website, and remains a vivid creative hobby hub despite a decline in numbers.

I know that Age of Sig Zharr also sport many fantastic creations, never before seen on CDO, so it's obvious that the creative drive within the Chaos Dwarf community is alive and well.

As such, if certain conclusions hinted at above prove to be more or less correct, please unblock me, and please allow a free flow of tips and links and shares between CDO and Age of Sig Zharr. There are a lot of good stuff on both sites, and creativity is always best served when left free to roam. So, no artificial boundaries. No segregation. Just freeflowing hobby fun.

Also, if you have certain fun events such as contests or give-aways on Age of Sig Zharr, then be more than welcome to drop an announcement about it on CDO in return. What goes around, comes around.